Aayush Sharma
Based on the novel of the same name by Rick Yancey, ‘The 5th Wave’ is a sci-fi action film that chronicles the journey of a high school girl named Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) navigating the post-apocalyptic world to find her brother, Sam. The movie, written by Susannah Grant, Akiva Goldsman, and Jeff Pinkner, focuses on an alien species, The Others, making their way onto planet Earth. Initially, they didn’t do anything, and everyone assumed they might be friendly. However, soon the alien species started wreaking havoc across the globe, killing everyone by attacking the world in different waves. Right after the fourth wave, Cassie loses her brother and vows to do whatever it takes to find him. However, she has to hurry up because the 5th wave is coming, and this one might wipe out all the remaining survivors. As she embarks on this strenuous journey, she unravels secrets that challenge everything she knows about the enemy. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The 5th Wave Plot Synopsis
The movie begins with Cassie running in the woods and reaching what looks like a grocery store. She enters the stores and starts finding things she could use during her journey. That’s when she hears someone calling for help from one of the doors inside the store. She opens the door and finds a man pointing his gun at her. The man is injured, and during their conversation, Cassie asks him to drop his weapon. Cassie, who has a machine gun in her hand, tells him to remove his hands from his stomach. While removing his hands from his injured body part, Cassie sees something shiny and believes he has another weapon. As a result, she kills him. However, the shiny thing turns out to be a cross sign hanging from a small pendant. In a flashback sequence, Cassie lives like a typical high school girl, enjoying a party with her friends, including Ben Parish. When she reaches home, her brother asks her to sing a song so he can sleep.
The following day, while practicing for football, she and her school find out about an alien spaceship entering the Earth’s atmosphere. For the first 10 days, nothing happens, and the visitors, now known as The Others, don’t reply to any messages from NASA. However, they reveal their intentions by hitting the world with an electromagnetic pulse and knocking out everything. The pulse shuts down everything, from cars and phones to electricity and airplanes. A few days later, they hit the Earth with a second wave, manipulating its geology and causing massive earthquakes and megatsunamis that destroy all the coastal areas. Cassie and her family somehow survive the second wave and continue to live in fear. However, in the third wave of their attack, The Others modify a strain of Avian Flu, also known as the Bird Flu, and spread it across the globe via birds. Most of the world’s population dies because of the disease, including Cassie’s mother.
After her death, Cassie, her brother, and their father, Oliver, reach a refugee camp and start living their lives. Her father gives her a gun and tells her to use it if there’s a life and death situation. A few days later, a unit of the US Army arrives and assures them that they are here to take them to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. While boarding the kids on the buses, Colonel Vosch (Liev Schreiber) tells the elders that the 5th wave might hit soon because the Others are now among them. They inhabit the bodies of humans and control their actions. As a result, they need to screen all the adults and make sure that everyone is safe. Meanwhile, on the bus, Sam tells Cassie that he left his soft toy close to his bed and won’t go without it. As a result, Cassie gets separated from his brother and witnesses a massacre where all adults are killed, including his father.
Cassie promises to find her brother and bring him to safety. As she embarks on her journey, a man named Evan Walker rescues her after she injures her leg. Evan promises that he’ll help her find Sam. Meanwhile, at the base, the Army is recruiting children to fight against the Others. Ben Parish is present there too and is leading a squad, which includes Cassie’s brother Sam. By the end of the film, Cassie and Ben find shocking secrets about what’s happening worldwide and why the military is creating an army of children to fight an alien species. Despite all of this, the high school girl wants to find her brother and let him know that her sister will always take care of him.
The 5th Wave Ending: Did the Others Leave Planet Earth?
‘The 5th Wave’ primarily talks about an alien species entering the Earth’s atmosphere for unknown reasons. At first, they don’t give any response to the messages sent by NASA, and the people start believing that they might not have bad intentions. Soon, all their assumptions turn out to be wrong as they hit the planet with multiple attacks, known as the waves. When Cassie and the remaining members of her family arrive at the refugee camp, they have no idea what to expect. However, when the US Army promises to save them, they believe they will be safe. But the Army drops shocking information on the details that a 5th Wave is imminent, and because the Other can take control of the humans, they need to screen the adults before taking them to Wright-Patterson Base. One of the adult members draws a gun, saying that he won’t be a part of the process and wants to be with his kids.
As a result, the Army opens fire and kills all the adults before leaving the camp. Cassie, who loses her brother in the chaos, sees the remains of her father’s body and embarks on a journey to find her brother. Moreover, he takes one of the machine guns with her. At the Wright-Patterson Base, officials take youngsters into safe chambers. One of the youngsters, Ben Parish, who knows Cassie, undergoes a medical assessment, where Sergeant Reznik shows him how the Others seize control of people’s brains and corrupt them. She tells him he is here because they need to fight against the alien species and return to their homeland. Ben agrees to join the fight as she inserts a tracker inside his body. Not just him, even Sam is joining the battle and is a part of Ben’s team. While the Others continue to win the fight, the Army is training young kids for the war before the 5th wave hits the planet. The Army hits a breakthrough when they make a gadget that will allow them to differentiate between the Others and the humans.
As the fifth wave seemingly begins, the Army modifies a helmet with a detection viewer to help soldiers in the field. As a result, Col. Vosch is sending four of his units in the field to check the gadget in live conditions. The next night, when Ben and his team arrive in the battle-like conditions, enemies ambush them and kill one of his team members. As they manage to distract their enemies, they take shelter in a building. One of the members, Ringer, doesn’t want to be a part of the mission anymore and takes out her tracker. As soon as she does that, the gadget shows she is one of the Others. A few moments later, Ben follows Ringer, and the gadget reveals him as a member of the alien species. He realizes that Vosch and others are the Others, and they sent them here to kill the remaining human survivors. They stitch a plan where only Ben will return to the base and confront Vosch.
He sends his squad away and returns to the base, claiming that his team is dead. As soon as he reaches the base, Vosch reveals that he is one of the Others, and the children are the 5th wave. During their confrontation, bombs start to go off in and around the base, causing panic among everyone. In the end, the explosions destroy the base, but Vosch and his team manage to escape. In the aftermath, Ben stands amidst the ruins, haunted but determined. With Vosch and the Others still at large, the fight for humanity’s survival is far from over. The world might be inching closer towards annihilation, but there’s still hope, and if people get together, they can win this war. The story closes on a tense note, hinting that this is just the beginning and people should be ready for even a bigger battle.
Did Cassie Find Her Brother?
Apart from the Others, one of the most pivotal plot points revolves around Cassie trying to find her brother, Sam. In the refugee camp, the Army says that they are taking children to the Wright-Patterson Base. Meanwhile, Col. Vosch tells the adults waiting in the camp’s mess about the screening process during the briefing. Nevertheless, Sam and Cassie are on the bus, and when Sam couldn’t find his soft toy, he asked his sister to please get it for him. She gets off the bus to bring the teddy back. However, the bus leaves, separating him from his sister. After seeing the massacre, she heads towards the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. A potential Other shoots her leg, stopping her in her tracks. She starts to lose consciousness, and when she opens her eyes, she is inside someone’s home. A few moments later, Evan Walker comes into the room and tells her he saved her.
When she asks him about her gun, he says he didn’t see a gun near her. However, she finds her weapon beneath the floor and tries to escape. However, Evan catches her and saves her from a person controlled by the Others. She makes it clear that she wants to find her brother. Evan promises to help her find Sam. Meanwhile, after reaching the base, Sam is now receiving training for the battle against the alien species. He is a part of Ben’s squad, and the night before they leave for the fight, Sam talks to Ben about not being able to sleep and tells him that his sister used to sing a song to make her go to sleep. They sing the song together, and the next night, as they leave for their mission, Ben purposefully leaves Sam in the base so that he doesn’t die. Cassie’s journey finally brings her to the base mentioned above, and she meets Reznik. As she is about to show her what the Others do, Cassie kills her and starts looking for her brother. While doing so, she bumps into Ben and realizes they used to study together.
Cassie tells him that his brother, Sam, is somewhere in the base, and she needs to find him. Ben realizes that Sam, who is in his squad, is Cassie’s brother and helps her find him. Ultimately, she finds Sam and saves him. But with bombs going off, they need to get out of the facility. They sprint down the landing strip to save themselves, and members of Ben’s squad rescue them. As a result, they all have to escape the destruction. Despite all the chaos and danger, Cassie never loses sight of her mission to find Sam. With Ben’s help, her determination finally pays off, and she is reunited with her brother just in time. Even as the base is in flames, she pushes forward and refuses to give up hope. This narrow escape brings her back into his brother’s life and strengthens her resolve to keep battling for their survival.
Is Evan Walker Dead?
In her journey, Cassie finds an ally in the form of Evan Walker. He rescues her when one of the Others shoots her and treats her injured leg. Initially, Cassie doesn’t trust him, and when she finds out that he lied about the gun, she wants to escape. The reason he didn’t want Cassie to have her weapon is that he thought she would kill him for being the Other. At the time, Evan didn’t tell him about his real identity. He helps her find her brother and joins her journey. Moreover, he teaches her a swift disarmament maneuver that could help her take the gun from her enemy’s hand in a split second. However, when she gets to know that Evan is half human and half Other, she tells him not to follow her. When Cassie reaches the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, she is trying to find her brother, and suddenly, bombs start to explode in and around the base.
While she looks for her brother, she stumbles upon Ben, who knows where her brother is. As they continue their search, two military officials stop them and raise their weapons, but Evan arrives just in time to save them. He reveals that he is the one responsible for the explosions and wants to destroy the Others in the facility. He kisses Cassie and tells her that he’ll find her. However, the story leaves his fate ambiguous, making it unclear whether he is dead or alive. This ending is similar to the conclusion of the first book in the ‘5th Wave‘ novel series. The ambiguous conclusion of his tale leaves the story open-ended, reflecting the uncertainty and tension that define their world. This ending mirrors the book’s tone, balancing hope with unresolved questions that keep the fight alive.
Who are the Others?
People call the alien species The Others when the alien spaceship arrives on Earth. Soon, the catastrophe begins as the Others deboard their spaceship and start infecting people’s minds. That’s how they take control of their hosts and kill the remaining survivors. As their drones patrol the skies, many of the infected humans wander the woods to kill humans. Ben realizes that Vosch, Reznik, and possibly some other people are the Others who want to destroy the humans and take their place. On the other hand, Cassie learns about the Others when she realizes that Evan is one of them. While camping in the woods at night, two people attack them, and Evan saves Cassie by showing his super strength. That’s when Evan reveals that the alien species has been visiting the Earth for many decades, maybe centuries. Moreover, he tells her that he is half human and half Other. Previously, the species came and created sleeper agents like him, and when the ship arrived, the sleeper woke up.
The Others believe that love is just a trick, but when he saw Cassie, he realized that love is genuine. Shockingly, the Others also control the Army, and they are training the kids to kill the last of the humans. Evan wants to help her and stop the invasion. However, Cassie doesn’t want him to follow her. In the end, when Cassie reaches there and rescues her brother, Vosch is able to evacuate with the human children by military aircraft. By including this aspect and blurring the line between who is human and who is not, the story challenges everyone’s understanding of identity and loyalty. Also, it raises questions about what it means to be human when someone can turn trust into a weapon. The evacuation of the children raises lingering tensions: Are they safe, or have the Others trapped them further in their plan? Ultimately, the narrative leaves everyone questioning how to unite and fight the enemy when the world seems to be in shambles.
